River City Stories

Beyond inspiring us to dig a little deeper into San Antonio’s unique history, the Tricentennial has left more than a few locals in an extended state of reflection, pondering our personal histories here and feeling nostalgic for what’s no longer here — lost loved ones, bygone haunts and The Way Things Were in decades past. Written, designed and directed by Mellissa Marlowe and billed as “the almost completely true memoir of a San Antonio girl,” Jump-Start Performance Co.’s new production River City Stories wanders down a similarly nostalgic path as it revisits cherished or changed locales such as the unassuming music mainstays of Casbeer’s and Los Padrinos as well as the OG incarnations of long-running Mexican eatery El Mirador, stopped-in-time diner Earl Abel’s and legendary punk-rock dive Taco Land. Drawing from Marlowe’s Alamo City experiences during the 1980s, the original play employs Eraina Porras, Keli Rosa Cabunoc, Nathan Thurman, Adrian Uresti and Julio Sepulveda as performers navigating an era distinguished by “late nights, San Anto blues, greasy-cheesy enchiladas … and loud and proud drag queens mixing with Keep San Anto Metal.”